Nondetonating fuel



Patented Apr. 17, 1934 PATENT OFFICE NONDETONATING FUEL Philip S.Danner, Point Richmond, Calif., as-

signor to Standard Oil Company of California,

San Francisco, Calif.,

ware

a corporation of Dela- No Drawing. Refiled for abandoned applicationSerial No. 117,153; June 19, 1926. This application June 17, 1931,Serial No. 545,077

2 Claims.

This invention relates to motor fuel, and particularly refers to motorfuel of the so-called non-detonating type.

This application is substituted for my applica- 5 tion Ser. No. 117,153,filed June 19, 1926, which lapsed for failure to pay the final fee.

The hydrocarbon motor fuels now in use all have a very definite breakdown or detonating point beyond which the fuels cannot be used withoutserious trouble arising in the operation of the internal combustionengine. When the compression pressure is raised, a definite or criticalpressure is reached at which each particular motor fuel produces adecided knock. This knocking is evidenced by a pinking sound in themotor combustion chamber and is accomplished by a loss in power,overheating, and eventual pre-ignition, which, if severe, will cause themotor to stop.

One of the principal objects of the present invention is to provide amotor fuel for use in internal combustion engines which possesses lessdetonating properties than motor fuelsnow in use.

It has been found that certain relatively unstable organic compounds ofmetals, when admixed with mineral motor fuel, operate to suppressdetonation in internal combustion engines operating under relativelylarge loads and that high compression ratios, for example, compressionratios in excess of about 4.5 to 1.0 may be employed when using suchmaterials. Particularly, I have discovered that nickel-tetracarbonyl,Ni(C0) 4, is especially efllcient in suppressing detonation. Also, ironpentacarbonyl, Fe(CO)5,

cobalt tetracarbonyl, 602(00) a, and molybdenum hexacarbonyl, M0(CO)a,are of special efficiency in'the supression of detonation. Furthermore,these materials may be produced in commercial quantities in aneconomical manner.

Heretofore, difficulty has been met in the use of the metal carbonylsfor the. purpose of suppressing detonation in that the carbonyls aremore or less readily decomposed on contact withof the preferred form orforms of non-detonating fuel embodying the invention. For this purpose,I have set forth hereinafter the best examples of non-detonating fuelnow known to me.

The base of the motor fuel comprises a mineral hydrocarbon oil of anydesired type, such as is 6 usually obtained from petroleum oil. To thismineral motor fuel is added quantities of metallic carbonyls which mayconsiderably vary, depending upon the compression ratio of the internalcombustion engine in which it is to be employed and the particularcarbonyl used. As an example of such a motor fuel, nickel tetracorbonyl,Ni(CO)4,. has been added to gasoline from Cali- .fornia crude oil inproportions of approximately 8.75 grams of the carbonyl per gallon ofgasoline. The fuel thus prepared was used to operate in a motor with acompression ratio of 5.4 to 1, for a period of 20 minutes withoutdetonation, as indicated by a standard Midgely indicator. Likewise, wheniron pentacarbonyl, Fe(CO)5, is added to the same gasoline, a valuablefuel is prepared whose critical compression pressure will be roughlyproportional to the amount of carbonyl added. I have foundthat 5.9 gramsper gallon will permit a compression ratio of 5.6 to 1, while 10 gramsper gallon will permit a ratio of 6.0 to l. The other carbonyls, cobalttetracarbonyl, CO2(CO)8, and molybdenum hexacorbonyl, Mo(CO)s, may beemployed in approximately the same molecular proportion or otherproportions, as desired.

Some difficulty may be encountered in the use of any of these carbonylssince they arev more or less readily decomposed on contact with air andmoisture, and especially when exposed to light. For this reason, Iprefer to employ compounds of these carbonyls which are sufiicientlysimilar chemically and physically to the straight carbonyls so as not tosacrifice the beneficial characteristics of the metal carbonylsthemselves. Such compounds are the nitroso bodies formed by the actionof nitric acid upon these carbonyls. For example, such compounds ascobalt nitrosocarbonyl, Co(CO)3No, and iron nitroso pentradecacarbonyl,Fe4(CO)15No, are eramples of the suitable nitrosocarbonyls.

I have further discovered that the tetracarbonyl'of iron, Fe(CO)4, isalso adapted to provide a non-detonating fuel and that it has specialadvantages in that it is relativelystable on exposure to air, moistureand light and yet is highly eflicient as a detonation suppressing agent.

.As a further embodiment of the invention, I have discovered that'thevarious carbonyls mentioned may be combined together to produce dou- 1ble carbonyls which possess the advantage of the single carbonyls inpreventing detonation while, at the same time, decreasing the tendencyof the materials to decompose on exposure to air. As an example of thisform of the invention, both iron pentacarbonyl and nickel tetracarbonyldecompose on exposure to air, moisture and light. It has been found,however, that these two compounds combine together to form a doublecarbonyl which is quite stable on contact with both air and water,

even on long standing. The compound formed from these two materials isthe ferro nickel enneacarbonyl, FeNi(CO) 9. The double carbonyls, suchas the one described, have the disadvantage of being less soluble inordinary motor fuel than the single carbonyls. However, it may bereadily dissolved in motor fuels by the employment of

